An MOS transistor includes a source region, a drain region and a channel region therebetween. In the prior art, electrical contacts to the source and drain regions must be sufficiently spaced from the gate of the transistor to ensure that the source, drain and gate remain electrically isolated when manufacturing tolerances are taken into account. The spacings between the contacts to the source and drain regions, on the one hand, and to the gate on the other hand, are a function of the alignment and critical dimensions such that under worst case manufacturing tolerances, the contacts do not touch the polysilicon gate. Consequently, the surface area of each MOS transistor must be larger than required by the size of the source, drain and gate regions.
A previous method of establishing self-aligned contacts involved oxidizing the polycrystalline silicon gate at a high temperature to provide insulation between the contacts and the gate. Such an approach has been disclosed by J. A. Hayes in U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,415, issued Aug. 1, 1978. However, the temperatures associated with forming oxidation barriers cause diffusion of the dopants in the source and drain regions. This diffusion changes the dimensions of the source and drain regions and thus prevents this approach from being used when integrated circuits are fabricated using one micron and sub-micron fine line geometries. In addition, high temperature oxidation according to prior art self-aligning contact schemes causes oxide to grow along the outer edge of the interface between the gate and the gate oxide, effectively increasing the thickness of the gate oxide in that area. Consequently, the threshold voltage of the transistor will be higher along the edge of the gate than along its center. Thus, the current drive of the transistor will be significantly reduced. Accordingly, there has been need for a new contact structure which would allow the size of the transistors, and therefore the size of memory cells using these transistors, to be reduced.
In an integrated circuit the contacts are usually connected to electrical interconnections or "interconnects" to form an integrated circuit. Interconnects have often been formed using heavily doped polycrystalline silicon (i.e. "polysilicon") layers; however, these layers typically have a sheet resistance of 20 ohms per square or higher. Resistance this high causes long RC time constants and hence, undesirable time delays.
When forming an interconnect layer according to the prior art, the polysilicon interconnect layer is required to overlap all the source, drain and polysilicon contacts so that even in the event of worst case alignment, contacts are not exposed. Such exposure will cause the underlying polysilicon gate and the doped source and drain regions to be damaged during etching of the polysilicon interconnect layer. This alignment requirement of the polysilicon interconnect layer consumes a significant amount of space, particularly in memory cells. Accordingly, there has been a need for low resistance interconnects that are not required to completely overlap the source, drain and polysilicon contacts.